A makeover for Pa.’s notorious kids-for-cash court

May 17, 2009

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — For the first time since a jaw-dropping scandal involving crooked judges and troubled kids, voters in northeast Pennsylvania are getting a chance to assert themselves at the ballot box — and, perhaps, to start fixing the problems that have turned this former hub of coal mining into a hothouse of corruption.

On Tuesday, residents of Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding area will choose among 17 candidates running for two open spots on the shorthanded Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, where two judges recently pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks, a third was kicked out for misconduct in a separate case, and the FBI has been looking into allegations of case fixing.

All of the judicial candidates say they want to restore trust and confidence in a court system sorely lacking in both. But they’re fighting strong currents of voter cynicism; the widespread belief here is that politicians treat local government as a spoils system for friends, family and supporters.

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Some of the candidates themselves have contributed to the perception. Records show that more than half of them gave campaign contributions to the now-disgraced judges — including one candidate who donated $10,000 in a single pop.

No wonder voters are cynical.

“When you go out there (on the campaign trail), the absolutely overpowering message is they’ve completely lost trust,” said candidate Michael Blazick, 35, who has won the endorsement of both daily newspapers in Wilkes-Barre. “There’s been a meltdown in the public’s confidence in the judicial system. They think all judges are corrupt, and anyone seeking a judgeship must have ulterior motives.”

While the attitude is frustrating, said Blazick, who has never contributed money to a judicial campaign and favors the merit selection of judges, “you can’t fault the public for feeling that way.”

Indeed, Luzerne County has endured one political scandal after another.

First came “kids for cash,” a story that reverberated nationwide as a pair of judges, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, were charged in January with taking $2.6 million in kickbacks to stock private detention centers with young offenders. They pleaded guilty to fraud and face seven years in prison.

Then a top court official admitted he embezzled tens of thousands of dollars, and another pleaded guilty to tampering with court files. Then came an FBI appeal for the public’s help in rooting out corruption in the hiring of public school teachers — followed by charges against two Luzerne County school officials.

More public officials are expected to go down before the FBI and federal prosecutors end their probe in Luzerne County, about 100 miles north of Philadelphia.

“Somebody’s always on the take,” complained Jim Bussacco, 84, one recent Saturday as he painted chairs in his back yard near Wilkes-Barre. “Greed is the motivating factor. Everybody wants the buck. Politicians have too many family members working in county jobs, school jobs.”

Beyond selecting candidates for judge, voters Tuesday will also decide whether they want to take a first tentative step toward scrapping the county’s current form of government — which reformers say has bred decades of corruption — in favor of a home rule charter designed to reduce the opportunities for graft.

The ballot measure is being pushed by a group of young reformers, most of them in their 20s, who have spent weeks going door-to-door to build support.

A similar effort failed in 2003 after opponents of home rule mounted a furious campaign against it. But P.J. Best, a 24-year-old law student and former candidate for state representative who is behind the latest campaign, said a shakeup is desperately needed after the recent spate of corruption.

“It’s a good old boys network where all these politically connected people get together and start working the system. And none of them turn on each other,” Best said. “Unless you have a system that is more open, transparent and accessible to the people, (corruption) can go under the radar for quite some time.”

Home rule isn’t for everyone. When Best and another canvasser arrived at a Little League field one recent Saturday to distribute fliers, they were ordered off the property within minutes by a league official who also happened to be a township supervisor. No politics allowed, said the official, even though there were numerous school board candidates in attendance. Despite the seeming First Amendment violation — it was public property, after all — the canvassers went quietly.

Even if home rule passes in Luzerne County, it wouldn’t affect the operation of the Court of Common Pleas, which falls under state jurisdiction. But even there, some hopeful signs of progress have emerged.

The current president judge, Chester Muroski, has won praise for his efforts to revamp the way the court system does its business. The court’s bloated staff has been cut back, for example, and a new computer program will randomly assign civil cases, eliminating the potential for judge shopping.

Muroski, who reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year and whose seat is one of the two up for grabs, said he hopes to resurrect the court’s sullied reputation even before his replacement takes the bench: “I just want to leave here knowing that some of the wrongs have been righted.”